What did the Arabs Think about the Vikings?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2022
- The Vikings met the Arabs in two main locations during the Viking Age, Al-Andalus, the Muslim kingdom in Iberia, the modern-day countries of Spain and Portugal, as well as in Eastern Europe along the rivers of Russia and Ukraine. But what did these Arabs think about the heathen Norsemen they encountered?
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Sources:
The Viking World: The Vikings and Islam - Egil Mikkelson
Arabic Sources on the Vikings - J.E. Montgomery
The Vikings In Arabic Sources - Amin Tibi
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#Viking #Norse #Documentary
If the Arabs saw the Norse as filthy, I wonder what they would have thought of the British who saw the Norse as vain and too focused on personal hygiene.
British (derogatory)
Even know most Arabs see European filthy by not using water and soap on the butt after number 2.
Wait seriously? I had no idea that's how the British viewed the norse
Where do you get this from ?
@@fuscian Anglo-saxon chronicler John of Wallingford, among other ancient sources.
Would love a video about how the Norse saw the Islamic world. This was such a well presented history lesson full of interesting information and sighting sources. Thanks
Yeah
Wouldn’t that be a tall order considering we barely know how the Norse saw the Norse world
@@y11971alex
You mean converts in seville? Or in muslim lands?
@@snowmoon7385 huh?
Norse converts in Seville
@@maddogbasil
There were some who wrre captrd in war in coast n settled in caliphate not in sevile hut nearby...
*ibn fadhlan didn't say 'blonde', he said 'moghr', the closest translation is redhead*
He referred to them as red people because blonde people are modern descriptions of Europeans. Arabs used to call Europeans the red people, the sons of the red, or Romans, which are the most popular, even in holy scripts. Turks and Eastern Asians are called yellow people.
@@IssacAlgizani
I know that but the word he used is to describe hair color,its a between redhead and blonde
As an Arab and an informative "TH-camr", the fact that you include the Arabic writings of the names and shedding spotlight on our deep and complex region really amazes me, well done!
he's Arab himself lol
I second this, I love to see the real names of people and places but they’re usually translated into English nowadays. Not saying I’d rather decipher it myself but have an English and their real name would be nice as the standard for all education channels.
I'd like him to say Muslims more then arabs
Because we achieved all that success when we were real Muslims and true believers when we was united as Allah want us to be when was no difference between all human races except how much strength of your believe in Allah inside your heart
My friend, in this era that we live in, you see only Arabs and you do not see Muslims, because all the true Muslims died, only a few remain, and all that remains for the Arabs is history about a people they called Muslims, and they feared nothing but God. These people were able to defeat the Roman Kingdom, the Persian Kingdom and the Kingdom of The Mongols and the Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms and defeated the Vikings
We don't have the right to say that's arab history cuz arab have no history
Although I'm Arab
@@ahunter107 Considering my ancestors were oppressed by the arab muslims, FU
@@ahunter107 you simply didn't read any history. You just repeating what you've heard
your arabic is surprisingly well, almost unheard of that a western person can pronounce arab words to this accuracy
Is her a western person!?
@@napolien1310 Hilbert is a male and I believe an ethnic Frisian (a type of Netherlander) living in the U.K., so yes.
Bruh, everyone Who learnt arab can pronnounce It perfectly if they train, look for example to Western muslims the have to ready and pronnounce the Quran.
Or Arabs pronunciation of islandic
@@erikjohnson9223 Half frisian no?
It’s as fascinating as the interactions between the Chinese and the Romans and Greeks.
You should a video on that topic lol
The Chinese never interacted with the Romans.
@@nomanor7987 bruh they did in Roman Syria
@Abdulaziz Mohammed noice
@@nomanor7987 no , they were well aware of each other...
"It is possible Ibn Fadlan exaggerated the filthy bathing practices"
Probably not. Mixing spit was a sign of fidelity and brotherhood, the same as mixing blood. Even to this day, you are supposed to spit in your hand before shaking on a deal at a Scandinavian cattle or horse fair. It is a truly ancient custom, most famously described when the Aesir and Vanir sealed the peace treaty after the first war by all spitting in a great cauldron, from which beer and poetry were later derived.
Interesting point and well spotted. May have been a religious ritual.
You don't understand how much Arabs focus on hygiene and cleanness.
The guy was really defensive in this video.
@@juzores1 He like to downplay arabs account if it has bit of negativity about vikings. Like, even france with its beautiful architecture have shite everywhere even on the building, on the street, everywhere. Victorian era were not so much different in terms of hygiene.
To be fair the Arabs at their height described any place they disliked or disrespected as “filthy”, so there might be some exaggeration here
Ibn Fadlan is one of the best story writters in the whole history. He could describe very detail information about other practices in different cultures. I still read his stories and memories, they are amazing I cant stop it.
Bro, can I just say, the sheer effort and commitment you put into trying to pronounce all the foreign words in your videos as correctly as possible is amazing! As a linguistics nerd, I truly appreciate that.
Yeah that really caught my attention, great pronunciation
I find it interesting that no-one appears to have considered that the narrator may be an Englishman of Arabic/Muslim extraction.
@@williambolton4698 Sounds unlikely when the dude's name is Hilbert, but I guess nothing's impossible ^^
I was literally about to write a comment about 2:17 saying this. I honestly don't think it's fair to expect people who don't know a language to pronounce things as natives would, but I appreciate that he went the extra mile for it.
@@wariyoshidirector Exactly! Of course I wouldn't expect non-natives to be able to pronounce Arabic, or any foreign language for that matter, perfectly, but it really ticks me off when I see creators not even at least trying, so Hilbert is definitely a nice change of pace ^^
Really fascinating stuff! Being a Norwegian, it's very interesting to hear how the vikings were perceived by others than the typical sources
I d like to see what vikings think of arabs
@@snowmoon7385 We thought they were a good income source!
@@MrBlue-dm5li
The whole encounter of vikings with muslims be in rus or in coasts of spain were hilarious...
I am arab and live in norway
@@Aurmm How do you perceive Norwegians?
Wow nice as an arab I am impressed od how well you pronounced the Arab names and letters very well .
he's Arab
I'm pretty sure you are using a Turk as pf
@@shakalalalalkh1098 yeah true but he is a Muslim I love dirilis ertugrul do you watch it ??
@@shakalalalalkh1098 so?
@Allah change your username.
For a guy named Hilbert, your Arabic is amazing :o
Umm it's ali hilbert muhammed son of Hassan ali
I love these sort of videos that talk about how different peoples interacted. Very keen to see you do more!
Fascinating thanks for another great history lesson Hilbert ☺️
you are so good in pronouncing arabic
as an arab i had no idea about the authors or the books and sources that you mentioned
its so informative this videos of yours
thank you so much
This video is amazing! Such an interesting topic, I always think it's really cool to think about how different people groups throughout history looked at the rest of the world, brings a lot of humanity into history I think. Really well put together!
"These people keep burning our shit but they also give us REALLY good deals."
Yknow, what everyone thought of the vikings, really.
Excellent video!
Very thorough and well-researched.
Thank you Hilbert.
Placing the commentary in context shows insight, and is appreciated.
Your Arabic pronunciation was superb
This was super cool. I support the idea of doing another one in the other direction.
I'm once again amazed at your ability to pronounce so many different languages so well.
Brilliant video - how have I only now discovered this channel!!!
Well done... would love to see more videos on your suggested topics.
THAT GREAT ! I would like to hear the otherside and also even more on this topic as well !
I read about the Vikings from the British perspective, I’m glad to get the Arab perspective because they are a writing people from a long time ago. I believe what the Arabs wrote and accept it as written because it’s a consistent impression of the Vikings with what I’ve seen elsewhere. Its annoying when people try to change history to fit their preferred ideas to flatter those that they like and tear down those that they don’t like; that’s why I wish more peoples wrote and find it sad that they destroyed so much written history (burning of the library of Alexandria), the more perspectives the greater the possibility for accuracy. Based on what I’ve seen elsewhere I was actually surprised that they washed at all, though washing in filth might be the same as not washing at all to some people. I find the history interesting because of how scornful, shaming and superior Europeans tend to act towards other people.
You're a person of truth my friend.there's a Swedish telling a short historical summary between both.look up for the video when the Muslims meet the Vikings
sadly, until today, the winner writes the history.
...and burning of dar el hikma librery of Baghdad by the Mongols and the burning and looting of the Baghdad museum that held many old/ancient manuscripts during the American invasion of Iraq and later isis that burned the libraries of Mosul with thousands of manuscripts
I believe one of the most horrendous atrocity committed by the mongolians was the burning of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, so much text and knowledge lost to the fires.
History is but a work of fiction. Europeans have always been on top. They just write these fairy tales to make other races feel better about themselves and have hope.
I love the way you pronounced things! This video was wonderfully made. It was super entertaining and informative, I loved it!
Intriguing topic, substantive research, and well-produced presentation. Thank you for sharing your efforts, friend. 🙂
Great video. very interesting! Would like to see more about middle eastern history!
There is a book by Michael Crichton, "Eaters of the Dead" (and a film "The !3th Warrior" loosely based on the book) which, while fiction, makes use of the real-life historical document you note, the account by Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan, the Arab poet, of his travels north to the Viking lands in the 10th century. Crichton states the major inspiration for his book were Ibn Fahdlan's work and the Anglo Saxon poem "Beowulf." In the film version, Ibn Fahdlan, played by Antonio Banderas, is the POV character. The book is an interesting read. The film does a good job of juxtaposing the two cultures. While it did poorly at the box office, those fans of the current spate of Viking dramas on offer on the various streaming services might want to give this film a look -- ditto fans of Antonio Banderas. You might recognize Crichton as the author of the books "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park" on which the respective films are based.
That movie is epic and nicely done
That movie is so underrated and under-appreciated. Love the reveal that the Grendel are just a bunch of surviving neanderthals and I lost it when i realized an Arab and some Vikings made them go extinct, for good.
One of my favorite films
I love that movie.
It's a combination of the manuscript of Achmed Ibn Fadlan and the epic Poem of Beowulf.
He wrote it on a bet with a fellow professor.
This was really interesting, good job
that was amazing bro!!! absolutely compelling subject
Very interesting part of history, haven’t seen this covered before
I'd love a video exploring Gog and Magog. Keep these videos coming.
Mental that you've collabed with people like sam aronow now. Keep up the great work Hilbert!
Thank you for such rich deepdown in this amazing topic ❤️
Fascinating and a remarkable talk on the subject . Can we have more please ?
This is sick, would love to see more! Under York Minster there's a big elephant tusk that was gifted to the vikings by and carved by islamic people, would love to hear more about it
you sound like such a cool person by the way
Excellent and learned presentation!
Great job, and your voice is easy to listen to, like a great story teller.
Love the videos on relations between different peoples, more!!!!
3:50 this guy spoke in that book about discovering the place of Gog and Magog, an interesting subject for a video if you will.
Truly one of the best channels
Very interesting enjoyed the video
I have always been interested I'm Arab and Muslim history however a lot of people give it such a negative stigma. Thankfully my sister went to school with a majority of Muslims so she's willing to discuss the topic with me. She has also taught me a bit about the culture.
May Allah guide you
Well for the account of the respect ibn showed I wonder why ?
@@stagthechainsawbeserker3926 he admittedly said the truth
@@stagthechainsawbeserker3926 to be completely fair, Middle East's standards of cleanliness were high. With having Running water and sewer system. Plus taking baths once a week and using communal bowls are considered clean to Western Europe's standards.
A reverse video would definitely be interesting. Great video! 👍
Did the vikings leave any writing records?
Requesting part 2 please!
Great work ..Interested to know about other sources from the Vikings
14:54 Though the city of Barda is currently in the Republic of Azerbaijan the region wasn't known by this name back then, the name Azerbaijan was for the region south of the river Aras , what is now Republic of Azerbaijan was known as Caucasian Albania, Arran, and Aran and Shirvan.
Ali, i dont think albania was a caucasian though the race of albanians identified as White caucasian and though the majority are muslims. Albania is a south european country or west balkan known as recently.
@@blerimlila5893 You're confusing modern day nation of Albania with Caucasian Albania. Albania is an exonym with Latin origin which means "mountains land" or something. Albanians themselves call their country " Shqipëri". Also didn't get the meaning of Caucasian here, here it means from the region of Caucasus and had nothing to do with the racial term Caucasoid or Caucasian white.
In ancient times the name Albania and Iberia were used for to state in the Caucasus, stuck between the various Iranian empires and the Roman Empire to the west. and south. While Iberia was one of the early Georgian nations, Caucasian Albania was home to a people whose language was related to modern Chechens. The region of Caucasian Albania was first Persianized and then Turkified, mostly becoming the modern day republic of Azerbaijan. Nowadays a small population of Christians called the Udi people still live in the Republic of Azerbaijan whose language is similar to Caucasian Albanian.
Fantastic video thoroughly enjoyed
your pronunciations are perfect. Good job.
Very enlightening and nuanced
While I appreciate the creator of this content, I’m a bit disappointed that he failed to mention that the Vikings were defeated in all of their raids on Iberia, this is very important fact to be mentioned since the bulk of the Arabic Andalusian writings about the Vikings were about the details of the Arab success in repelling these raids, it's important to know the context from which these quotes come
He is trying hard to whitewash his ancestors like all orientalists before him. What do you expect from European except lies and deceive
yes, however they took Sicily from the Arabs
@@DubK-ww6xj
That was the Normans, not actual genuine Vikings.
@@joellaz9836 Vikings / Normans are the same thing the only difference is a few centuries and by the time they were called Normans they had already become Christians, in addition the terms Norman and Viking meant the same thing Norman derived from the Latin languages and the Viking term derived from the Nordic languages but in themselves they are the same thing
@@DubK-ww6xj no they're not. culturally, and religiously different for 100 years, at that point, they wont see themself the same pagan as their ancestor are. we're talking about the viking with the nordic culture and fascinating pagan religion here, not the christian norman who basically have the same culture with other christian civilization in europe.
As an Arab; I found this video incredibly interesting. And btw your pronunciation of Arabic words and names is really good!
قناة السبيل عملوا حلقة كرتونية عن رحلة بن فضلان
@Qe Qa كيف فضحتك ما فهمت؟ تحسبني مب عربي ولا وش هههههه؟
@@Melia_67أنا احب اهل الامارات
OMG! Another video I'm interested in would be very interesting! It's Lit!
Great content 👌
Great video/pronunciations as ever. Would love to see the reversal you mentioned at the end as another video.
I have but one complaint, surely you could have done more to shoehorn THAT national anthem in there somewhere 😉
Interesting collection of testimonies. Usually the account from Ibn Fadlan is the one that is most popular, so I appreciated the others from Al turtushi for example
Really cool video!! Thanks?
Great video
you have the best Arabic pronunciation I've seen on a non-Arab. Good on ya hilbert
Good job Hilbert, as an Arab this was informative
I would just say that we should give more credit to the ability of these writers to differentiate between cultural norms and understanding reality, such as what ibn fadlan mentioned about the Russ spitting in the same bowl that they used to clean themselves, this is pretty straightforward imo
That is a burning question I didn't know I had. Thank you
Excellent video.
As an Arab myself, your pronunciation is phenomenal
ليس كل من تحدث العربيه عربي غالبا انت لست عربي جرب تسوي Dan لان كثير ناس للاسف خصوصا في شمال افريقيا يدعون العروبه والنسب الهاشمي وعندما يعمل DNA يكتشف انه ليس عربي ولى حتى واحد بالميه
@@user-D7oom كول خرا أنا من لبنان يا قلبي
@@user-D7oom شمال افريقيا عربية يا كربوز، سير بكي
@@user-D7oomNA tests from companies like MyHeritage and 23 and me that are manipulated by by the the zionist party and the US government ? Yeah no thanks, I would prefer unification 1Million times over division, plus how the hell did spanish have words with Arabic origins if they weren’t there in that area. And let us not forget that the Maghrebi dialect is actually pretty easy to understand if you have basic knowledge in Quranic Arabic wich most of people do not plus understanding the spanish and french slangs .
@@KarimKhldi لا اعلم لماذا تغضب اذا قلت هل كونك عربي سيجعلك انسان مميز او انت تشعر ان العرب عرق اعلى من عرقك الفينيقي لهذا تدعي العروبه 🤭
I'd love to see more videos about contacts between cultures you don't usually hear about, and especially perspectives you rarely hear
Enjoyed this video
This is awesome thank you for this
You can see alot of these info included in the great movie "The 13th Warrior" starring Antonio Banderas. As an arab who sails with Beowulf and the vikings back to Scandinavia. There is even a scene about the bowl of spit and dirty water that goes around the men to wash with. As an Arab who was raised up in Sweden I find this video utterly intersting and well done. And you arabic pronunciation is on point. You should read some of the Quran, you will find it very intersting. There is so much history written there. Great channel. Subbed and liked. 👍
Interesting, thanks. Keep it up, with how the Vikings thought of the Arabs.
Sadly Vikings didn’t write books.
@@yassine073t Quite right. Much like is the case with tribal people around the world they mostly told and preserved stories by telling their children while a few wealthy vikings could afford to have rune stones erected as a lasting legacy of somebody's adventurous life. For obvious reasons nothing particularly long and elaborate could be told on these rune stones just the main factors.
The main factor here is that the monks were preservers of knowledge, history and science in Europe at that time and there were none of those in Scandinavia until those countries became wholly Christian. Pagan practices, stories and rulers were abandoned and only kept alive through stories in rural communities, mostly in the far north, where they became sagas and legends. Keeping the two apart was difficult which is why some of the stories either are completely made up or "improved upon" over the centuries.
It's possible that there were viking "scholars" who were eager to learn about the science, discoveries and knowledge of other cultures but these were sadly forgotten in history because those rural people who maintained the legends by word of mouth through the generations obviously didn't understand science or knowledge and only kept the "legendary adventurer" stories. So any viking "Plato" would have been reduced to a malevolent schemer much like Loki the norse god of mischief and tricks.
Many arabs academic wrote about Arabs and others races such as Ibn Khaldon he was the founder of social science and other... He was very professional
Great video!!!!
Well done, a good even handed account without bias, thats real history!
You should do about the Normans in Spain. Roger de Tosny being a famous one.
There was also a Norman Principality in Iberia: Principality of Tarragona
Yes, more please!
Thank you for the right pronunciation and putting in the effort, well done ❤🎉
first time on ur channel, real interesting topic :)
Woooow, great arabic reading
Interesting and outstanding scholarship, presentation, and pronunciation, from my POV as a Norwegian-American with linguistics knowledge. I'll be looking for more of your work.
very good interesting history topic.
Nice arabic brother, thanks for the video !
Perfect upload timing. Im at a viking festival here in iceland.
5:20 if they were down south on the volga dressed the way they were i have begun to realize that was NOT their normal attire. They were not wearing tunics or caftans because they were too damn hot to be wearing more than half a layer.
Please do make a part 2 of the reverse perspective. I appreciate all these sources. Thank you.
Amazing video and Fabulous pronounced Arabic
Your pronunciation for Arabic is sooooo good
The Muslims from that era were some of the most honest and best record keepers. It might be lost in translation but I'm most certain that there are no lies.
In those days the Muslims were only arabs
I would love a series on the ancient and up to modern day Arab world
That would be hard to do or perhaps impossible to do because Vikings didn’t really record much of their journeys or their lifestyle. That’s why there’s those people from other cultures describing them and writing about them. We mostly hear about the negative side of Vikings because those who wrote about them hated the Vikings because of their ruthlessness like families of people who were killed by them, or people who were raided by them.
@@irishl3403 Al-Fadlan was sent on a diplomatic mission to Volga-Bulgaria and just happened to come across the Vikings.
I don't think he had anything against them..
@iris HL
Not really.
The Anglos thought the Vikings were clean (because they were even worse when it came to hygiene).
Ibn Fadhlan was on a diplomatic experience to Vulga Bulgaria. He only met the Russ Vikings because his guide made a mistake on their way back to Baghdad.
would love to see more videos on your suggested topics.... soon !
great video , I actually like ur arabic pronunciation
Fun fact, the word "magic" also comes from the word "majus"
Wow your Arabic pronunciation is really good!! And the knowledge you share is very accurate. I love your videos, but this one especially because it connects both my backgrounds ☺️ although they're not that positive about my people 🤣
Good job, bro .
Love all the Creators of Project Middle East!!!
Great video man, makes me wanna re-make my own vids about the Vikings and the Islamic world!
This was rather interesting, a video about how the norse saw the muslims and islam would also be cool.
The norse were mostly illiterate savages, there wouldn't be as much to go on....
@@pierzing.glint1sh76 what about runestones or the sagas?
I don't think the Vikings kept written records.
Some converted to Islam
@@pacco1737 saw something of a viking artifact that had Allah written on it
The other way would be a great and much needed topic to be undertaken. Covering the wars between the two also
Love this! Id love to see more on this subject!
By the way (Arabic to English)
Yahya=John
Dawood=David
Nuh=Noah
Ibrahim=Abraham
Is'haq=Isaac
Ya'qub=Jacob
Zachariah=Zachary
those are the most common "English" names which are also common Arabic names. They are names of prophets before Muhammed.
Peace and blessings upon them all.
Ayoub = Job
Jibril = Gabriel
Musa = Moses
Issa = Jesus
Yusuf = Joseph
Suleiman = Solomon
Fun fact: Ibn al-Qutiyyah name means ( Son of the Gothic woman).
How are you so sure?
@@yassine073t He’s as sure as that as I’m sure you are Amazighi also Quti means gothic
@@yassine073t
As a arabic speaker it's very clear. His name was ابن القوطية and the word قوطية Qutiyyah comes from القوط Al-Qutt the Arabic name that has given to the visigoths in Iberia.
جدته قوطية لكنه عربي
that's right
good job brother ,I am Arabic and I live in Norway .you spoke about many Arthur's of Muslims and so much information about the viking , also reading good Arabic .Allah with you to show you the way..
I really like this video, great information. And yes I would like to see more videos on related topics like for example with the Arabs\Muslims in al Andalusia Spain side of the Germanic tribes, the Norse and the other way around. What did the Spanish Norse Germanic groups thought of the Muslims and just more general information about their interactions in Spain. Thank you very much in advance.
There were no arabs or germanic spanish people. There are only spanish people from roman descent aka mediterranean. the arabic language was a second language used for the export in the international book trade that made spanish writers very rich back then. it was also a liturgical language for the spanish who converted to islam back then. there were no people of arabic descent is spain at all, because the arabs stayed in their homelands in the desert. and back then some germanic people were paid as mercenaries to fight in spanish civil wars back then. no one foreign group contributed to the spanish genetic makeup.
@@batminton7467
Hahahahahahah are you kidding? Almost people from most of the Arab Tribes immigrated to Spain and have dependents there , yes there were other converts from other nations but it was arab culture